Tour Operations Management Report: Package Pricing and Brochure Design

This report provides a comprehensive overview of tour operations management, encompassing various aspects from the development of holiday packages to strategic decisions made by tour operators. The report begins by analyzing the effects of the tour industry's development and recent trends, followed by an examination of the stages and time scales involved in creating a holiday package, including research, negotiation, and tour development. It delves into different contracting methods, such as fixed contracts and sales contracts, and details the components of holiday packages. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to calculating the price of a tour package per person, using a case study of a tour to Amsterdam and Netherlands for students. Furthermore, the report explores the decisions involved in designing brochures, considering the format, budget, and target market. It contrasts traditional brochures with e-brochures and discusses suitable distribution methods for selling holiday packages, including direct sales, online trading, and promotional strategies. Finally, the report touches on the strategic decisions different tour operators make to remain competitive and attract customers.

TOUR OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1.1 The effects of development of the tour industry on the basis of and recent trends...............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 The involvement of the stages and the time scales in developing a holiday package...........5
2.2 Different contracting methods and components of the holidays...........................................5
2.3 Calculation of the price of the tour package per person........................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 The decisions for planning taken for designing the brochure...............................................7
3.2 The suitability alternative of a traditional brochure for the different types of the operators.
.....................................................................................................................................................9
3.3 The distribution methods suitable to sell the holiday packages..........................................10
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Strategic decisions made by different operators.................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays we can see that government is keen interested in promoting the tourism in country, the sole reason behind this is the tourism industry play a major role in the economic growth of a country . This is
why for the good growth of a country, tour operators are providing very good services to the public in the field of tourism. The main services provided by the operators along with the various offers for the interested
people. The availability of online booking for the holiday packages has reduced the chances of the consumer to go door of various operators. The consumer is highly attracted by the eye catching pictures and videos on
the online tour site and can take a virtual tour by having a watch on them and can easily select their tour destination and book them. The arrangement facilitates for the offered locations were made by the tour operators.
TASK 1
1.1 The effects of development of the tour industry on the basis of and recent trends
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1
A tour operator industry mainly creates the suitable
packages for both tour and travels by advertising and
preparing brochures for the respective places.
The tourism have led to the growth of the nation and
have become the economic motorist for the countries like
UK which are well developed. The tourism industry has a
major contribution in growth of developing countries as
well as for the developed ones according to World Trade
Organisation.
Effects of current and recent trends and development on the tour operators industry
E-commerce technology adoption: The adoption of E-
commerce technology has helped the tour operator
industry to scatter worldwide. This technology has
made it easier and quicker for the consumers to know
and book the various packages, booking of tickets
through online websites in lesser time at lower cost in
simpler way.
Increasing consuming habits: The have become capable of
earning more income which have developed the habit of more
spending. This habit has led to various opportunities for the
consumers offered by the tourism industry.
Research of market: This helps in identifying the needs and the
expectation of the consumers suitable as per packages according
to their wants.
Brief of the tourist places: The main aim of any industry is to
earn profit, but with conversing about the tourist destination
with their consumers. The government pays a high amount to
keep the tourist place clean and to make the people aware
about them
Focus on satisfaction of the consumers: Consumer
satisfaction is the major focus of tour operators by
meeting needs keeping the spending capacity of the
consumer in mind.
Offers of customised holiday packages: The consumers
can select and customise the desired packages according
their budget and place preference.
Robinson, P. and et.al., 2016. Operations management in the travel industry. CABI. Frost and et.al., 2014. Noreen Breaker has worked in hotels, resorts, tour operations, travel agencies, restaurants and events in Australia and
overseas. Dr Breaker has a national reputation for her research on tourism and hospitality education, and her current research interests focus on sustainable visitor usage of the world’s existing, developing and potential tourism
destinations. Rainforest Tourism, Conservation and Management: Challenges for Sustainable Development.

TASK 2
2.1 The involvement of the stages and the time scales in developing a holiday package.
First and the foremost part in developing a tour package is to do proper planning, to
provide a consumer with the best possible services. The most important part of travel and tour is
to have proper research of the places to be visited, understanding the basic needs of the
customers for the availed package.
Enquiry of the places to be visited : A proper enquiry about the places to be visited
during the trip should be done and analysed to visit and different restaurants of the destination,
Amsterdam and Netherlands (Sigala, M., 2014).
Research : Proper researches of the selected destination should be done prior to forming a
package to reduce the waste of time and to utilize that time in exploring more and more places.
This also helps to plan time for each destination.
Negotiation : The proper transportation, accommodation, food facilitates and the other
basic requirements should be provided by the every tour operator.
Tour development : Finalizing the tour and the places to be visited should be confirmed
and the other facilitates provided by the tour operators.
Administrative staff : As when the peak season arrives the demand of the staff increases
as to serve each of there costumer at proper time, so a good quality staff should be hired with
abilities to handle all the customers calmly.
Brochures of the tour operator : It is the most important tool for the promotion of the
tour company. It contains each and every detail of that particular tour even the information about
the tour company (Burgin, S. and Hardiman, N., 2015).
Marketing tour package : The online as well as the offline procedures can be followed to
book the tickets as well as to connect them with the tour operators. The target segment marketing
can be done through targeting the interested consumers through various attractive advertisement.
However, by implementing above mentioned stages, increasing number of tourists will be
recognised. It will be effective for systematic planning in terms of all factors including time
consumed, cost incurred on package, advertising and contacting with tourists. Including this, tour
development and administrative staff would be perform as of dealing with customers more
effectively.
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2.2 Different contracting methods and components of the holidays
An agreement among the travel handler and the tour officer to make the agreement clear
to the travellers made in the whole package by the agent. It contains all the details which
includes the net rate of the complete tour at the proper concession on grocery price, also includes
the commission of the selling agent and is offered by the operator at the provided retail rate
directly by the customers which also includes the commission calculated by the operator during
the particular time. (Sahin, E. and Matta, A., 2015).
Fixed contract : During the off season the tour companies faces challenges in selling the
tour packages but under this type of agreement the traveller imposes high charges to cover the
maximum revenue including the off season. The booking done by the operator is of the full
capacity rather than what actually to be consumed. Due the high availing of the package by the
consumer the discount provided is also high (Robinson, P. and et.al., 2016).
The contract only for sales :The buyer writes an agreement of sales with the travel agent
to decide the price and the services to be proved in the trip. The agreement has the higher cost in
off season as compared to the season. These agreements help to retain the customers the
organisation wants to attract in the future. The charges are charged only for the actual package
no additional or hidden charges are charged. The weak response of the consumers towards the
package designed by the tour operators is the main factor of risk associated in this type of
contracts.
The discussion of both contracts, shows that both the contracts have advantages and
disadvantages in their own terms. The high discounts, pre decided profits and the booking
advantages are available in fixed contract and to reduce the wastage of the funds the sales
contract focus and targets the interested consumers.
For encouraging tourists towards holiday plan and package, it will be effective for tour
operator to contract more efficiently. It is two kinds as fixed and contract only for promoting
packages. In this regard, fixed contract will be more suitable for the tour operator to increasing
number of tourists as well maintaining relations with them. Thus, profitability and booking will
be enhanced in terms of fixed contract and also systematic plans are made effectively.
2.3 Price of the tour package per person
The tour package to Amsterdam and Netherlands of seven days were booked for around
46 students. The work is assigned to various staff members for the proper management of
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lodging in 3 star West cord art hotels which is located in Amsterdam on the edge of the historic
centre at of cost around £1,952. The hotel was booked on the basis of the twin sharing at the cost
of £84 per head and £3,703 were the charges for the bed and breakfast services. The tour is fixed
for 46 students on the basis of fix contract. Amount was paid in advance without knowing the
actual capacity utilized. 50 seater luxury coach with two drivers and expenses of fuel was
provided for travelling and was charged £10,800.The tour agent charged £1,200. So finally
£22,068.75 comes to be a total cost for the tour package.
Price determination is done on the basis of market demand, competitiveness and tourists'
attraction towards holiday package. On the basis of analysing these factors, appropriate decisions
are made for holiday package. In this regard, cost incurred for purchasing materials and
additional like; advertisement and other expenses are considered. Thus, price for holiday package
by tour operators is set according to incurred costs and affordability of tourists as well.
TASK 3
3.1 The decisions for planning taken for designing the brochure.
Travel and tourism industry focuses on brochure for better sharing of information
about their tour packages. It also helps to communicate the key information which is
essential for clients. The distribution of the brochure is made for the purpose of
information sharing regarding tour packages so that more customers can be attracted. It
is also necessary to maximum people to increase the booking and to lower travelling cost
(Sahin, E. and Matta, A., 2015). Some important planning decisions relating to the
brochure design are :
Identifying the issues affecting the Format of the brochure: The targeted
consumers should be kept in mind to develop the format of the brochure. A brochure
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should contain complete information about the organisation, the tour package and the
destination to be visited.
Budget considered and the targeted market: The market targeted should be
selected according to consumers interested in investing in the package. The budget also
plays an important role as it defines the spending habits and the capacity of the targeted
consumers.
Time limit and stages: The designing of the brochure is been completed in the
above point. The planning, organising and implementation stages should be
accomplished within the allocated time limit for each stage.
Planning decision: The issues to be identified before designing the Boucher the
company need to analyse target market. It helps in better sharing of information in
selected time frame.
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3.2 Alternative of a traditional brochure for the different types of the operators
Previously tour companies were dependent on the traditional form of brochure to attract
the consumers (Frost and et.al., 2014). With the change in time the technique also changes, the
traditional brochure system was replaced by the new e-brochure system. The e-brochure
technique is the new way display of the tour packages that attracts the large number of
consumers worldwide. The new and attractive designs and eye catching display will attract the
large number of consumers also increase the company revenue.
The new design of e-brochures will be more attractive and will attract many consumers.
These brochures are much more decorative are easily designed and are really fast to have access
to, as compared to those traditional one. The brochure contains the picture of various destinations
which are eye catching to consumers. By having a look at those pictures the consumers can also
have a virtual tour of those places and can easily select there destination they want to visit. We
can also give a name to this type brochure as the visual brochure. The brochure can also contain
the videos of the destination in them with proper sound.
Thus, the consumers get highly attracted by having a look at these type of brochures. One
can easily upload these brochures at any social media platform and by this mean easy marketing
and promotion can be done of that particular tour package of that tour company.
Hence, using e-brochure will be effective for attracting tourists towards holiday package
will be resulted for increasing number of tourists. In addition to this, effective trust can be build
up with tourist and holiday plan at maximum level. However, youngsters will be attracted on
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large scale also demand for holiday package in wide range. Therefore, profitability and
competitiveness of tour operator can be increased at higher level.
3.3 The distribution methods suitable for selling holiday packages.
The various methods used by the operators for selling the holiday package. Some of the
methods are as follows : direct sales, online trading, telephonic sales conversation, promotion
through call centres and online advertisement. Sales through online media direct to the
consumer's is direct sales vacation packages. The tour operators can use the distribution method
to target the large number of consumers and get a positive feedback. The selected brochure has
all the information about the destination along with the attractive images in the brochures (Hoyos
and et.al., 2015). Consumers get complete information regarding tour packages by the mean of e-
mail. Through the e-mail the tour company can provide the consumers with full detail regarding
he particular tour. The promotion is done by the external agencies to increase the sales of the
packages. Even the call centres are set up in various cities that comprises the sales executive of
that particular company. Through the telephonic conversation the consumers are tried to get
convinced regarding the tour packages and its benefits.
Distribution methods used for promoting holiday package of tour operator can be done
through publicity, advertisement in newspaper, magazines, using social networking sites and so
on. Therefore, tourists will be encouraged on large scale as well demand for the package in
maximum range. Including this, good relations can be maintained with them influences profit
level and competitiveness of the tour operator effectively.
TASK 4
4.1 Strategic decisions made by different operators
Partitioning, aiming and locating : Tour operators generally used to aim the selected
customers to develop the tour packages by identifying there needs. As there are many other
opposition tour companies in the market so final conclusion is taken by keeping in mind the
given budget by the customer to provide them with appropriate assistance which is much better
than others in the market. By this conclusion the tour operator can easily take other important
decision to boost up his business.
Concession concepts : Various approaches are made to get the attention of large number
of customers to utilize the particular tour package (Medlik, S. ed., 2016). The counting up of
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concession amount with that of mentioned amount of specific tour package is a wise decision
related with firm price contracts.
Season dependency : It is the most crucial factor to be considered prior to any tour
package. During the vacations like in summer and during winter, in these seasons the demands of
packages for the desired location is quite high. So some attractive offers are made on tour
packages to catch the eyes of the customers.
Competitive cost master plan : this master plan is made by the particular tour company,
to provide the same tour package which is provided by the tour companies at a relatively low
cost and provide the consumer with good offers at provided price.
Marketing concepts : there are many campaigns are organised to do the marketing of
particular tour company and to accelerate the payback of the business to make more and more
growth in terms of financial basis.
The tactical decision that could be taken by a tour operator.
There are many decisions which are taken by the particular tour operator like working
out on price with service provider and many other arrangements like lodging, travelling food and
many others. There are different service providers for different purposes like lodging,
transportation, sight seeing, food and other related stuff (Burgin, S. and Hardiman, N., 2015).
Keeping in mind all these key point many packages and programmes are framed and forwarded
to the particular service provider for inviting proposals.
Most appropriate proposal or package is selected which fulfil the available budget. The
identification of proposal is done by keeping in mind, providing the best available facility at very
minimal cost. For achieving this objective many meetings are done between tour company and
service provider. This overall procedure requires tactical decision making like conducting
meeting with service provider, making up on price and arrangement of all the others requiring
facilities. Evaluation of the buyer experience is also an important step of tactical decision
making.
However, various tour operators made different decisions regarding promotion of holiday
package in various considerations. For instance; cost, market demand, tourists' attraction and so
on. Therefore, on the basis of these factors, variety of strategies are made impact on tourism
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industry of the country also impacted on economic, employment and other sectors at maximum
level.
CONCLUSION
The various details of the tour and travel company business is studied here. The tourism
and travel industry donates a lot in overall countries GDP, that's why the government is also keen
interested in boosting up this industry. Through this study the significance of tourism and travel
industry is spotlighted. The packages are designed by keeping in mind the pre available budget,
and providing the best available services at minimal cost. Various strategies are planned like
providing concessions and eye catching offers to tempt the buyers. Brochures designing and
there development is discussed along with various tactical decision which are taken by the tour
and travel agency to finally come up with a well satisfied packages.
REFERENCES
Robinson, P. and et.al., 2016. Operations management in the travel industry. CABI.
Frost and et.al., 2014. Noreen Breakey has worked in hotels, resorts, tour operations, travel agen-
cies, restaurants and events in Australia and overseas. Dr Breakey has a national reputation for
her research on tourism and hospitality educa-tion, and her current research interests focus on
sustainable visitor usage of the world’s existing, developing and potential tourism
destinations. Rainforest Tourism, Conservation and Management: Challenges for Sustainable
Development.
Brown and et.al., 2013. Strategic operation's management. Routledge.
Hoyos and et.al., 2015. OR models with stochastic components in disaster operations
management: A literature survey. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 82(1). pp.183-197.
Felicen and et.al., 2014. A Correlation Study between Student Performance on Travel and Tour
Operations Course with CRS and Internship Performance on Travel Agency. International
Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development. 3(2). pp.74-86.
Medlik, S. ed., 2016. Managing tourism. Elsevier.
Allahyari and et.al., 2015. A hybrid metaheuristic algorithm for the multi-depot covering tour
vehicle routing problem. European Journal of Operational Research.242(3).pp.756-768.
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